Saturday, July 18, 2009 – Day # 10 of recovery

Last night I went to bed at midnight again. I did not set my alarm to wake me up for my nightly doses of Hycet, hoping that I would get more sleep. Not so much. My body woke up automatically at 2am and 6am. Hmm, I wonder if that means my body has gotten used to waking up every 4 hours, or if it just wakes up because the medicine wears off? Either way, I got up and went to the bathroom as I assessed my pain level by swallowing a few times. Not horrible, but not great. I decided to go ahead and take more Hycet because I don’t want to force my body to deal with the pain on its own if it is not ready yet. And I don’t want to wake up in an hour or two in worse pain. So both times I took two teaspoons of the medicine, got a glass of water, and went back to bed. I tried to drink my water quickly, for fear I may fall asleep sitting up and spill the water everywhere. I was quite sleepy. I got up at about 10am, and after taking two teaspoons of Hycet, I had a Slim-Fast and a doughnut for breakfast, then took a shower. I ventured out of the house for recreational purposes for the first time today. My siblings picked me up at 12:30pm (still can’t drive myself while taking the hydrocodone!), and we went to lunch. At about 2:30pm, I took two tablets of ibuprofen but by the time we got back at 5:45pm, I was hurting again, but not too badly. It had been over 7 hours since I’d had the strong pain medicine! I took two teaspoons of the Hycet when I got home, and ate dinner (Fish sandwich and French fries). I was tired after having been out, but not as bad as I thought I would be. After my abdominal surgery in December, I was exhausted after performing only simple tasks. But that was a more major surgery than this one, and I was not admitted to the hospital this time. I am hoping the energy will stay relatively high, since I have to jump back into my normal schedule starting Monday. My throat is looking more red today, I think because I have been doing more, eating lots of normal food and not drinking as much water. Here are two pictures for today:

I still have to be conscious to eat carefully, and my throat and the corresponding muscles are still sore, but all in all I am on the mend and feeling good. I started using a straw again today, (Quite by accident, actually! I unwittingly started sucking from the straw of my restaurant drink at lunch. Took me several sips until I noticed what I was doing, but then I figured it was okay, since I am 10 days post-op now, and didn’t feel any pain.) and I blew my nose yesterday. Everything felt fine. I am looking forward to being pain free and have full range of motion, (i.e. to yawn, cough, sneeze, yell…) and I am especially looking forward being able to sing freely without any tightness or tenderness. I adore singing, and am eager to hear what I sound like without my late throat-blocking tonsils to interfere. Will the acoustics be different? We’ll see! I am most eagerly looking forward to never having tonsillitis or referred ear pain again, and never having anymore cursed tonsil stones!

I am already starting to forget the awful pain that I endured just a week ago. I am already nothing but happy that I had the surgery, and I definitely feel that it was worth it. I hope this blog has helped you in making your decision; or if you have already had the surgery, I hope it will help you to endure what you are experiencing by knowing that other people have gone through this just like you, and lived to tell their story! Hang in there! It will get better, I promise! If you have reached this life-changing milestone because of throat infections, or tonsil stones, please be assured that what you have gone through and are going through now is the absolute WORST of it all, and it will only get better from here! You won’t have to worry about any more strep infections, tonsillitis, or pick any more nasty stones out of your tonsils ever again. Congratulations! I wish you the best with your experience, and I hope that you will share your story with us someday. We would love to hear it! Thanks for listening to mine. :)